Dr. Gerald Custer is a multifaceted choral musician, active as conductor, composer, author, clinician, and teacher. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in choral music education at Westminster Choir College, a master’s in orchestral conducting from The George Washington University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts in choral conducting at Michigan State University.

An award-winning composer and arranger, Dr. Custer studied with Malcolm Williamson. His work is featured on the CD Inscape: Choral Music of Gerald Custer, sung by the Voices of Anam Cara conducted by James Jordan, and as the title track on the Grammy-nominated Innisfree by the same forces. Recent commissions include works for the Interlochen Arts Academy choir, a choral symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall by the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York, and a setting of the Stabat Mater Speciosa premiered by the choir of Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Custer has contributed chapters and music to both volumes of James Jordan’s The Choral Rehearsal and provided musical examples and performing editions for Dr. Jordan’s Music for Conducting Study. He serves as the featured choral methods columnist for the GIA Quarterly, a publication that reaches more than 25,000 church musicians around the English-speaking world.

Dr. Custer presently teaches music theory and composition at Wayne State University, leads a multiple-choir program at First Presbyterian Church in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and serves as music director of the Seaway Chorale and Orchestra.